State representative talks nuclear energy

By BRANDON MESSICK
Daily Press Staff Writer
“New Mexico’s coal industry is being regulated out of existence,” State Representative Cathrynn Brown (R-Carlsbad) said Thursday in a seminar held by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and the U.S. Department of Energy. “We need new sources of energy.”
Coal, which produces 44 percent of America’s electricity, is the single biggest air polluter in the U.S., according to the Minnesota-based Union of Concerned Scientists. The union, which began in 1969 and comprises more than 400,000 members, says that 572 operational coal plants in the U.S. produce an estimated 1.7 billion tons of pollution into the atmosphere per year. … For the rest of the story, subscribe in print and on the web.